NCAA Plays Risky Head Game in Notre Dame-Alabama Showdown

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- By all means, enjoy the upcoming
showdown between the University of Alabama and the undefeated
University of Notre Dame for the college football national
championship. In many ways the sport has never been more fun to
watch.

As you do, however, say a prayer for the athletes on the
field who may be risking brain injuries -- many of which could
be prevented.

For years, a steady drip of studies has shown that
concussions are alarmingly common in football, and that players
who experience them are much more likely to suffer depression,
memory loss, headaches and other maladies.

Recently, it has become clear that concussions are only
part of the story. A government study released in September
found that retired football players were four times as likely to
have died of Alzheimer’s or Lou Gehrig’s disease as the general
population. Research published last month in the journal Brain
found that a staggeringly high percentage of subjects with a
history of repeated mild head injuries showed signs of a brain
disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

Almost all the subjects in that study were athletes, and
most were football players. Significantly, offensive linemen and
running backs, positions in which contact is made on almost
every play, were the most likely to have the disease. This
suggested -- although did not prove -- that unremarkable but
repetitive blows to the head may in the long run be as injurious
to an athlete as the singular bone-jarring hits that get more
attention.

Affecting Academics

Risks unique to college athletes, the vast majority of whom
won’t go on to the pros, are also becoming clearer. A study
published in the journal Neurology in May tracked Division I
athletes in both contact and noncontact sports over the course
of a season. Some were fitted with helmets that collected data
about head impacts, and all were given cognitive tests before
and after the season. A higher percentage of the players in
contact sports scored worse than predicted on postseason tests.
Those who had been exposed to more hits to the head were even
more likely to underperform.

Let’s repeat that: By playing a sport, some ostensible
“student-athletes” were actually impeding their ability to
learn. A clearer distillation of the hypocrisies at the heart of
big-time college athletics could hardly be imagined.

So what can be done? For starters, the National Collegiate
Athletic Association could take some tips from the pros.

The National Football League, under intense pressure from
the players’ union, in 2011 limited the number of full-contact
practices teams can undergo to an average of one a week over the
season. That could be a game-changer. Several experts have
estimated that as many as 70 percent of head injuries occur
during practice. One study found that college football teams see
an average of 300 hits of concussion-causing force during
practice in a single season. Experts writing in the journal
Clinics in Sports Medicine recently concluded that “one way to
quickly and drastically reduce a sport’s concussion risk would
be to limit unnecessary contact in practice.”

Furthermore, players sustain far more total hits over their
careers in practice than in once-a-week games. If repeated mild
blows to the head can indeed cause CTE, limiting practice hits
could be the best way to prevent it short of fundamentally
changing the sport. Along with the NFL, the Pop Warner youth
football organization and the NCAA’s Ivy League conference have
sharply reduced the contact allowed in practices. The NCAA
itself -- which still allows five full-contact practices a week
-- needs to do the same.

Hit Counts

The NCAA should also consider how to better use advanced
technology. Although helmets have proved to be distressingly
ineffective in preventing concussions, expanded use of devices
that track hits to the head could help. Researchers at the
Sports Legacy Institute advocate a “hit count” system, in which
the number of such blows a player can take in a season is
subject to a cap -- not unlike a pitch count in baseball. This
technology is expensive, and will be resisted by many coaches
and players (and surely fans), but schools such as Virginia Tech
are already experimenting with it.

Finally, a 2004 study found that almost 53 percent of
concussions go unreported, either because the players don’t
think their injuries are serious or because they want to stay in
the game. Closer monitoring by coaches and medical staff, and a
better awareness of the risks and symptoms of brain injury among
players, should start to change that.

Will the quality of play decline if college athletes can’t
practice as hard, or take as many hits in a season? Undoubtedly;
anyone who claims otherwise has never played or coached
football. Let’s be clear: Football is an inherently violent and
injurious game, and no amount of rule changes or technology or
education will alter that.

But the NCAA -- whose unpaid student-athletes often rely on
scholarships to afford their educations -- should remember that
brain injuries are uniquely debilitating. Evidence suggests
they’re getting more common as athletes grow bigger, faster and
stronger. And there are clear steps schools can take to limit
them. To do anything less is to jeopardize the futures of
already vulnerable young athletes. Is that worth seeing a
slightly better game each weekend?